He had just won a year’s worth of free hamburgers for being named Player of the Game at Burridge Gym during McMaster’s 87-65 Ontario University Athletics men’s basketball victory over the Brock Badgers on Saturday.

But, in the hallway outside the dressing room, the Marauders rookie was wincing in pain after the game as a result of a shoulder dislocation and banged up knee. Those injuries were caused when he crashed to the floor after being fouled on one of his dunk attempts in the fourth quarter.

Black, who scored many of his 14 points in high-flying fashion, had to be helped off the court as a result of the fall. His left arm was placed in a sling. There was no immediate word on how long the Orchard Park high school product would be sidelined.

“It was a fair play,” 6-foot-7, 216-pound Black said of the foul. “I just came down the wrong way and my shoulder came out. I saw the guy when I went up for the dunk. I just tried to finish the play and he was trying to stop me.”

Marauders coach Amos Connolly went on to the court during the delay to talk to the officials. But he wasn’t demanding an intentional foul be called. For the game, Black shot 5-of-6 from the field and was 4-of-4 from the free throw line.

Said Connolly: “We’ve lost Geoff Noble for the season with a broken arm (Jan. 8 against Western) and who knows how long Taylor will be gone for. So our already suspect size starts to become more suspect.”

Brock coach Brad Rootes indicated Jonathan Silver got Black on the wrist at the peak of their jumps. “(Black) is a nice player to watch,” Rootes said. “Hopefully, he can recover.”

The victory was the fourth straight for the Marauders (7-5) and moved them ahead of Brock (6-6) into sole possession of fourth place in the West Division.

Centre Scott Brittain was again solid for the Marauders, tossing in 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. He also had six assists and four steals. Cam Michaud added 14 points and Kenan Etale had 12.

Brock, which gave up 23 points in each of the last three quarters, got 20 points from Mike Cruickshank. Cedric Kasongo chipped in with 11.

Mac had the edge in both field-goal shooting percentage (45.1 to 30.4) and rebounding (52-32).

“We wanted to get the ball to Scott (Brittain) and let him make the reads,” Black said. “We really played defence. We kept them to 26 points in the first half.”

Connolly said the Marauders executed the game plan well and just got sloppy at times in the second half. “I’ll take it,” he said. “It was a good conference win.”

Connolly and Rootes are both first-year head coaches. They are replacing two of the winningest coaches in CIS history in Joe Raso and Ken Murray. Raso was in charge of the Marauders for 18 seasons, while Murray guided the Badgers to two national titles in his 20 years at the St. Catharines school.

“We didn’t show up today … it’s disappointing,” Rootes said. “We got outworked in every facet of the game. But I’ve been happy with the guys. They have been buying into the system and the culture. You can’t change things overnight. It’s a process. We’re in the thick of the playoff race and we’re headed in the right direction.”

Up next for McMaster is a pair of home starts against the second-place Lakehead Thunderwolves (9-3). Games are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Elsewhere in the West Division, Lakehead defeated the Laurier Golden Hawks 90-84, the first-place Windsor Lancers topped the Waterloo Warriors 73-61 and the Western Mustangs downed the Guelph Gryphons 83-71.